How To Become An Early Childhood Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an early childhood specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Amanda Aguilar

Early childhood specialists work on the healthy development of infants, toddlers, and young children. You will work with children less than five years of age. It is your job to create developmental plans for children based on your assessment of their need for developmental assistance.

As an early childhood specialist, you would be required to work with the parents and teachers to administer programs that would expose and develop their skills and their ability to solve basic life problems. You should receive progress updates from parents, which will help you make necessary adjustments to your plans and strategies for the child. You might be required to teach literacy classes for the parents of preschoolers and infants.

Creativity, passion for children, physical stamina, and organizational skills are the important traits that every early childhood specialist must have. Other highly important skills are professional development, high quality, technical assistance, child care, data collection, and other skills. The average early childhood specialist earns $16.27 per hour and $33,836 per year.

What general advice would you give to an early childhood specialist?

Dr. Amanda Aguilar

Assistant Professor of Sport & Fitness Management, Website

Most of your salary increases within education will come from additional years of experience as your career progresses or moving to a district/state that pays a higher salary. However, there are some things you can do throughout your career that will add additional stipends on top of your base salary. Some of these might include additional education (masters, doctorate) and additional certifications (English as a Second Language (ESL), National Board Certification, School Counseling, reading and/or math specialist, and more). Additionally, you might decide to take on additional duties such as coaching, club sponsorship, summer school teaching, and more. The stipends for these duties will vary depending on the district.

ScoreEarly Childhood SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,575

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.7

Growth rate 15%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

8.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.89%

Asian 5.63%

Black or African American 8.67%

Hispanic or Latino 17.16%

Unknown 4.53%

White 63.11%

Gender

female 87.18%

male 12.82%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

7.7

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.0

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

10.0

Work life balance is excellent

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an early childhood specialist

Explore early childhood specialist education requirements

Most common early childhood specialist degrees

Bachelor's

58.8 %

Master's

20.8 %

Associate

13.0 %

Start to develop specific early childhood specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Professional Development	12.68%
Technical Assistance	11.58%
Staff Development	10.20%
Data Collection	9.61%
Child Development	8.98%

Complete relevant early childhood specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New early childhood specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an early childhood specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real early childhood specialist resumes.

Research early childhood specialist duties and responsibilities

Perform CPR and first aid duties.
Complete assessments, develop IEP's and track progress.
Assist children's ministry team with projects as needed.
Follow lesson plans to fit the school and kids needs.

Prepare your early childhood specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your early childhood specialist resume.

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